Open Media Boston forum examines revolution and Internet use in Middle East

What is the role of social media, and the Internet generally, in the
current Arab revolutions? Barrels of ink have been spilled over this
question (more than I have read, admittedly) but one could get the
real low-down from a forum I attended
last night at Lesley University.
Two of the presenters–Ethan Zuckerman and Jillian York–are connected
to the Berkman Center at Harvard, just a few blocks down the street,
while the third Suren Moodliar, works with two political advocacy
groups, Massachusetts Global Action and the Majority Agenda Project.
The forum was put together by Open Media Boston.

I came away convinced that Internet sites–Facebook in
particular–were crucial to the spread of the revolutions. In the long
run, a larger role was played by the traditional media (if one can
call Al Jazeera traditional, in the sense that they’re a professional
broadcast organization), but they would never have gotten their hands
on the story of the Tunisian protests had not a cousin of the renowned
Mohamed Bouazizi released videos of protests on Facebook. According to
Zuckerman, this is what set Bouazizi’s horrendous suicide apart from
similar acts of protest that had dotted Tunisia before.

Many worthy questions were raised and debated–and sometimes even
answered–during the two hours we occupied the hall, but one of the
most interesting concerned the most essential political question
facing the Internet: does it favor the grass-roots or the centers of
social control in government and business?

Many take the position extensively written on by Evgeny Morozov, that
the governments and other central powers will use the Internet for
surveillance and control. York underscored the dangers here by
reporting that Syrian officials have arrested protestors and forced
them to give up their passwords on popular social networks. In this
way the government can find out all their contacts and what they’re
saying to them–even use their accounts to post pro-government
propaganda. One can extrapolate from this activity to a possible
future of an Internet panopticon where everything you want to say to
anyone must use the Internet.

York also reported the ironic backfiring (corroborated by an audience
member) of Egypt’s famed Internet shutdown. By the time of the
shutdown, huge numbers of Egyptians were following the protestors in
Tahrir Square, comfortable with learning what was going on from their
photos and postings, perhaps even writing blogs from the comfort of
their homes or cafes. When the Internet went down (mostly–one out of
Egypt’s eight Internet providers refused the order to shut down, and
it was a small local company, not one of the international biggies),
many of the people who wanted to follow events remotely decided to go
to Tahrir Square, just to keep their connection with the historic
events of the day. No wonder Zuckerman spoke of a “dictator’s dilemma”
in deciding how much to censor the Internet.

Other issues included the double-edged sword of U.S. government
support for alternative media, the participation of women in the
revolutions both online and off, the relationship between Internet
penetration and the potential for mass mobilization, and the relative
importance of Internet users–mostly middle-class and educated–among
the much larger and sometimes militant population.

Certainly, non-violent revolutions have occurred prior to widespread
Internet access. Comparisons are often made between the current Arab
events and the fall of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the
Soviet Union–political events heavily intertwined with media
activity, but not much of the Internet kind–and I thought also of the
massive shift in a mostly Internet-free Latin America over the past
thirty years toward democracy, indigenous people’s power, and civil
liberties. Revolutions are messy, and observers can argue about
causes and contributing factors for centuries. When you’re in the
middle of one, you use any tools you can get your hands on.

There’s a bit more to it than that. I say this, having just returned from the ME, where I gave a paper on the impact of social media. I carefully avoided the issue directly, given my audience, but have studied it very closely, both in the weeks before and subsequently. Naturally, ALL the questions related to social media and revolution.

In Egypt, Mubarek reconnected to the Internet due to howls of protest from business, especially banking and finance. This is a salutary lesson in using “kill” switches; collateral damage includes your economy!

In Syria, the Internet is closely monitored; this is well-publicized, including the tools used. Most social media is therefore anonymous Twitter, or Facebook via VPN. It’s the first I’ve heard about users having to give up their passwords, but I’m sure it’s possible.

Most of the middle class in the ME is very conservative. As everywhere, they want change, but they are concerned about change. Within that, we see a considerable push for generational change, mainly because of the significant proportion of the population in all countries less than 30. This is where the push is coming from, and it is being joined by their parents in many cases.

Current governments/monarchs/rulers/despots have no clue about this, and worse, respond with too little, too late, and are overcome by a tsunami of direct action for change.

http://www.cositech.net Peter

Right on target, but here are some more thoughts. I believe we have moved into a century of massive, global collaboration, innovation, and ‘open’ solutions. There is a revolution taking place in the high tech industry as we continue to move to open source solutions. In education and publishing we are moving to open copyright, open access, open knowledge, and open journals. We’re seeing collaborative and ‘open’ news organizations, religious, and political movements. ‘Open’ health IT solutions and communities are proliferating. I think its very real, this period of ‘open’ revolution’ on all fronts. I just haven’t got a truly clear handle on what it really looks like, how it operates, and what its impact will be on us, our own country, and our way of life. But something big is afoot – this is not just the Information Age, we’ve entered an Age of Open Revolution!

http://www.bestkarenmillenoutlet.co.uk/ DotemponoDabe

Great article, I think you covered everything there. . . I would say freelancing is quite hard especially if you are not used to working on your own, can be quite hard to motivate yourself also. . . we all know what it is like to stare at the monitor.

DingobiaDip

:)

http://www.sourceatlantic.com/about_board_4.html WilliamLan88

I’m an expert on the topic and I couldn’t have written it better myself

Swaine925

Glad to be 1 of several visitants on this awesome site : D.

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